


In Time

by StrangeMischief



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2020-10-26 10:10:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20740508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrangeMischief/pseuds/StrangeMischief
Summary: “I just need more time,” Tony sighed, pulling his shirt back on and heading towards the bedroom door. “I can’t just…All I need is more time.”





	In Time

**Author's Note:**

> As always, enjoy :3

_ In Time _

_ _

“Tony!” Maria Stark called impatiently, from the head of the table. She had been struggling to capture her son’s attention for several minutes and was growing increasingly impatient with his lack of interest in the, painstakingly arranged, family dinner. “Your father and I are waiting for you to share your resolution?”

“My New Year’s resolution?” Tony sighed distantly, swirling his champagne glass in thought. “I didn’t know I needed one. I hadn’t put any thought into it.”

“A surprising occurrence,” Howard grumbled around a cigar.

“Howard!’ Maria chastised, though her gaze was on her son, a clear message flashing in her hazel eyes. _Don’t push him. _

Tony’s gaze darted between his mother and father, the temptation to simply toss his glass to the floor and stalk off pushing hard against his resistance. “I’ll stop smoking,” he decided suddenly, eyes drifting to the cigar hanging from Howard’s lips with distaste.

“That was your resolution last year,” his father snorted. “I don’t know why I’m still unimpressed by your continued inability to demonstrate _any_ sort of dedication to _anything_.

Tony shrugged nonchalantly and drained the last of his champagne. “You never know. It might happen.”

\---

“Hey,” Rhodey shouted over the twelfth consecutive roar of _Auld Lang Syne. _“Are you going to make a resolution this year, Tones? My mom already made me swear I’d call her more often, so I’m cleared.”

“Ahh, you know me, Rhodey Bear,” Tony laughed, spinning his plastic top hat on his pointer finger. “Not one to commit to something that’s long-term. Especially not one as easily as accomplished as yours.”

“A year’s too long for you?” Rhodey laughed. “You know, I can’t believe I didn’t expect it from you. You _do _like to change your mind.”

Tony snorted in good-nature, but his friend’s words sounded hauntingly familiar_. I don’t know why I’m still unimpressed_. Suddenly the half-empty box of cigarettes in his pocket felt like it weighed two tons. _Continued__ inability to demonstrate any sort of dedication to anything. _

“I’ll tell you what, Rhodes,” Tony shouted, chugging down the last of his too bitter drink. “I’ll lay off the hard stuff. A little bit, at least.”

“Yeah, I hear that every Monday morning while you’re puking all over the bathroom floor” Rhodey laughed. “Don’t you think that’s a little too ambitious for you?”

“I’ll get to it,” Tony promised softly, knowing Rhodey couldn’t hear him over the part that surged around them. “One day, I’ll get to it.”

\---

Brittney…no Brooke…or maybe it was Bethany pulled her shimmering black cocktail dress on, groaning when the fabric was smeared with her, all too obvious, spray tan lotion. “Half my clothes have orange streaks!” she huffed, turning around and twisting her curly red hair to the side, silently asking Tony to zip up her dress. “I’m going to use less tanning lotion this year.”

“Might be a good idea,” Tony mumbled to himself, eyeing the telling bronze sheen on his palms. _God _knows where else it was.

Brittney-Brooke-Bethany giggled and turned, Tony’s signature sunglasses dangling from a single outstretched finger. “What about you, hmm? What will you change this year?”

“I’m not really a resolution kind of man,” Tony shrugged. He flipped through the rumpled sheets, searching for his tie and making a mental note to call room service and ask for someone come in and change the bedding before he came to his hotel room.

Alone.

Tony’s gaze turned to Brittney-Brooke-Bethany and couldn’t help but feel a sense of pining for something that playboy billionaires had no business wanting: someone that lasted more than a night.

“But maybe,” Tony sighed, “I can try again. This year I’ll…_try _to cut back on the one-night stands. It’ll make _some _people rather happy.”

“Really?’ Brittney-Brooke-Bethany asked, eyes taking on an excited shine. “Are you thinking of sticking with one person for a while?”

Tony pulled his tie from under a pile of pillows and chuckled. “Don’t get any ideas over there,” he teased. “Maybe I’ll just swear off women altogether.”

\---

Tony had hoped to slip into bed silently and avoid the storm that was brewing until it was morning.

He should have known better.

“You missed the ball dropping,” Pepper whispered into the darkness of their bedroom. She was turned, facing the wall, but Tony didn’t need to see her face to know she was angry.

He paused, one leg still hanging off the bed, and still halfway through taking off his slightly charred tank to. “I got caught up at the Compound,” Tony replied carefully. “I got caught up with a YouTube thing, and then Ross dragged me into a two-hour phone conversation again about-”

“I’m tired of doing things alone, Tony.” Pepper’s words were strong and tainted with an undertone of a dark promise Tony knew she was willing to make. “I’m tired of not knowing what you’re doing and when you’re coming back. I _can’t_ live like that. Not anymore.”

“Pep,” Tony sighed, reaching out to place a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “It’s been…difficult. You know that. But…just give me time. Things will calm down and then get back to nor-”

Pepper said nothing.

“I won’t just disappear,” Tony promised. “It’s a promise. A…goal. Think of it as my resolution for the year, alright? I’ll always let you know when I’m leaving, and I’ll…do my best to come back.”

Pepper rolled over and fixed Tony with a steely look. “You say stuff like this all the time and, I’m sorry, but I can’t just take you for your word anymore.” She turned, rolling back onto her side and added harshly, “Tomorrow, or the next day, or next week something will happen, and you’ll disappear all over again.”

“I just need more time,” Tony sighed, pulling his shirt back on and heading towards the bedroom door. “I can’t just…All I need is more time.”

\---

“It’s a new year,” Tony whispered, watching the timestamp on the HUD roll into midnight. “I can’t believe we’ve been out here this long. I never thought…I never imagined I’d be drifting through space at the start of the new year.”

“The new year?” Nebula asked softly, peering curiously at her human companion. “This is your Earthly manner of quantifying time?”

“Yeah,” Tony laughed softly. “It’s a holiday that’s not _really _important, but…still is somehow. People have parties and visit people they care about while staying up until midnight drinking and eating and just…celebrating that they made it through another year. If we were closer to a satellite, I’d have FRIDAY play that damn song no one knows the words to for you. Something about remembering forgotten times?”

“I’m sorry you’re missing it,” Nebula sighed, eyeing the food and water Tony had just re-rationed earlier that day. “Surviving a planet’s orbit, especially one as frail as yours, is worthy of celebration. I’m sorry your magician and mutant are not here with you for feasting and singing.”

“Peter and Strange?” Tony asked, confused how she placed them in the equation. “They would spend New Year’s with their family. They’re not…we weren’t…They wouldn’t spend it with me. Not many people would.”

“This day is one you spend with people you care about,” Nebula argued. “You just said that. Perhaps they aren’t your blood family, but you care for them, and they cared for you. I was there, Stark. I saw them in their final moments.”

“Nebula,” Tony sighed. “You don’t understand. It’s not like-”

“I understand more than you think!” she bit back harshly. “When you see them again, tell them. Tell them you care, and you’ll see I’m right.”

Tony groaned but relented, not wanting to deal with an irritated assassin when there was nowhere to escape. “Alright, alright. _If_ I see them-”

“_When!”_

“-I’ll let them know I care.”

\---

Tony shifted the bag of ice, so the brunt of its weight was bared by his shoulder and kicked the Sanctum door shut behind him. He had barely made it five steps into the house before he spotted a familiar shifty figure poking around a shelf of Stephen’s charmed artifacts. “Hey, Sticky Fingers! Hands off the relics!”

Rocket jumped, causing a number of random items flying from the pockets of his vest. “Crap! Ah, Stark! Didn’t see you coming this way! You know, I was just looking!” Rocket rushed to explain, quickly setting down the glass orb he’d been holding. “No harm in looking.”

“More like appraising,” Tony scoffed, collecting Rocket’s odd assortment of goods from the floor. “We got half a stick of gum, some burnt out copper wire, five triple-A batteries, and…a box of cigarettes? You better take those outside if you’re planning on smoking them. Stephen’ll kill you for smoking in here, and you know it.”

“I ain’t afraid of no priss in magic pajamas,” Rocket grumbled. “But I’m a _gentleman, _so I’ll go anyway.” The raccoon pulled two cigarettes from the package and waved one invitingly for Tony to take. “Want to join? I promise not to blab to your ball and chain.”

Tony frowned at the term, and in an obvious and unsubtle manner kicked the legs of the stool Rocket was standing on. “That wasn’t very gentlemanly, now, was it? And no, thanks.”

_…I’ll stop smoking…_

“Hey!” Rocket barked, struggling to find his balance. “Now you listen, Stark! Quill says we gotta play nice with you, but _he ain’t here right now _so I just might-”

“You’re here!”

Tony snickered at Rocket, who slunk off without another word, as a whirl of strawberry blonde hair and scarlet lipstick.

Happy appeared in the archway separating the foyer from the living room. He waved in greeting at Tony, but his adoring gaze never strayed from his wife.

Tony couldn’t blame the man. Pepper had always been beautiful; it was unquestionable. But Pepper pregnant…she was radiant with a kind of happiness Tony never thought he’d see on her face. It suited her, and Tony couldn’t help feeling thrilled just in knowing _she _was thrilled in her relatively normal, superhero-free life with Happy Hogan.

“We couldn’t find you!” Pepper tsked, swatting him lightly on the arm. “I was worried the crowd had gotten too big for you, and you darted off somewhere. But then Happy swore he heard you were coming right back.”

Tony laughed and shook his head. “I wouldn’t run off. I had told ol’ Dumbledore, but I guess he didn’t pass on the memo. I just went down the street for more ice. The way this crowd drinks, you’d think it was midsummer.”

_…I’ll always let you know when I’m leaving, and I’ll…do my best to come back…_

“He’s been too busy trying to keep tabs on Lang,” she laughed, resting one hand on the crest of her swollen belly, and guiding him into the living room. “Scott keeps trying to see what “magic tricks” he can learn while he’s allowed in the ‘real-life Hogwarts.’ Last time I saw them Scott had opened a box of tarot cards and asked for a readin-”

“Tones!” Rhodey cheered loudly from the couch, hoisting his glass high in the air, “Thor’s agreed to another two-against-one drinking game, and Banner’s a lightweight. I need a heavy hitter on my side!”

Thor laughed boisterously, and Bruce sputtered out a sloppy, nonsensical retort, clearly already feeling the impact of their drinking game.

“No can do, Rhodey Bear,” Tony laughed, carefully edging a stack of empty glasses away from the coffee table’s edge. “I need to deal with this ice. Why don’t you ask Nat? She could probably kick Thor’s ass solo.”

_…I’ll lay off the hard stuff…_

“The Man of Iron,” Thor began, waving an accusing finger, “has been a heinous, dampening spirit since he wed! Marital life has robbed him of his partying tendencies!”

“He feels pleased though,” Mantis swooned from an armchair. She had sneakily reached out to barely brushed her finger against Tony’s wrist. Her antennae glowed brightly as she shifted through his emotions and a peaceful smile graced her pale face. “Devotion. Love. They are well-suited as life-companions.”

_…I’ll…try to cut back on the one-night stands…_

Tony moved away from Mantis’ touch and wove his way between the dozens of Avengers and alien’s littering the living room in the hopes of escaping to the kitchen. “As much as I appreciate my feeling being broadcasted,” he looked pointedly at Mantis, “I’d rather not haul-ass through a blizzard to get _another _bag of ice because _this _one melted on my shoulder.”

“Do you want me to carry it, Mister Stark?” Peter’s voice, light with laughter, sounded from behind Tony’s retreating figure. “I can bring it to the cooler if you want some more quality time with Mantis.”

Tony rolled his eyes and shook his head. “You’ve spent too much time around here, Peter,” he snorted, walking with the teen towards the kitchen. “I can’t tell if you sound more like me, Stephen, or Wong and, frankly, that’s terrifying.”

“That’s what Aunt May says,” Peter sniggered. “I’ll tell her you agree when I get home.”

Tony’s head tilted in thought. “You’re not staying for the ball drop?”

“May’s shift ends at eleven,” Peter explained. “I told her I’d met her back at the apartment and watch with her. She’d never make it all the way to Greenwich in time.”

“You’re a good kid,” Tony hummed, slinging an arm around Peter’s shoulder. “Be safe out there, alright? Spidey-senses or not, a lot of icicles have been falling lately.”

_…If I see them…_

“Sure thing, Mister Stark,” Peter grinned, ducking out from under Tony’s arm and disappearing in the direction of the front door. “Happy New Year! Tell Mister Strange I said so!”

“I will! Happy New Year, Peter!” Tony shouted back, dropping the ice bag on the kitchen counter. “Tell Aunt Hottie we both said hello!”

The ice had just barely made it into the cooler when Tony was ambushed yet again, this time by a towering form that pressed against his back, trapping him against the counter.

“You know,” a smooth baritone hummed in Tony’s ear, “If I were the jealous type, I’d be worried that you still call her Aunt _Hottie._”

“Claws away, Stephanie,” Tony teased, turning and pressing his back against the counter so he could face Stephen. “I save all my best names for you, and you know it. Now, what brings you all the way back here? Did Lang run off with your tarot cards again?”

“I warded all the entries in the living room,” Stephen grinned. “He can’t step a _toe _out of there short of the room going up in flames. I came here for _you_. Pepper has already bet money that we’re still in the honeymoon phase, and I’m going to ravish you on the counter.”

Tony smirked at the thought and pressed a brief kiss to Stephen’s jaw. “You should have warded them _all _in the living room. Then I’d let you.” He gently broke past Stephen’s arms, ignoring his husband’s half-hearted grunt of displeasure. “Come on,” Tony urged, holding out a hand. “I want to see how much money Pep’s going to lose.”

Stephen snorted and took Tony’s hand, winding their fingers together as they stepped into the hall. “I love you, Tony.”

Tony’s step faltered, and his heart skipped a beat despite having had heard the same words spill from Stephen’s mouth countless times before. He squeezed Stephen’s hand tighter for a moment and cast him a look filled with love. “I love you too.”

_…I’ll let them know I care…_


End file.
